Philippa of Hainault
1310 – 1369 · Generation XVI · Queen consort · House of Plantagenet
Philippa of Hainault (1310–1369). Queen consort. Married Edward III of Windsor in 1328. 3 of their children are recorded in this archive. A daughter of William I, Count of Hainaut, and Joan of Valois, she was betrothed to the young Edward in 1326, when his mother Isabella came to Hainaut seeking help to depose Edward II. Isabella, unwilling to yield her own status, kept her uncrowned until 1330. Raised in the trading Low Countries, she steered her husband toward commerce, encouraging Flemish weavers to settle in Norwich and promoting coal mining in Tynedale. As regent in 1346 she rallied the English before their victory at Neville’s Cross, where David II of Scotland was taken prisoner, and in 1347 she persuaded Edward to spare the Burghers of Calais. The chronicler Froissart enjoyed her patronage. She died at Windsor in 1369 and lies in Westminster Abbey beneath an alabaster effigy by Jean de Liège; her chaplain founded The Queen’s College, Oxford, in her honour.
Place in the family
- Philippa of Hainault was a 4× great-grandmother of King Henry VIII.
- The archive records 137 of her descendants, across 24 generations.
One of 26 people of House of Plantagenet (1126–1485) in this archive. The longest-reigning English house, counting its Angevin beginning and the rival Lancaster and York branches that fought the Wars of the Roses.
Partners
- Married King Edward III (1312 – 1377) in 1328 — 3 children together
Children
- Edward the Black Prince (1330 – 1376)
- John of Gaunt (1340 – 1399)
- Edmund of Langley (1341 – 1402)
Life
- 1310 — Born
- 1328 — Married Edward III of Windsor
- 1369 — Died